Gas infrared heaters includes a porous combustion surface usually made of ceramic plaques where a gaseous fuel and air mixture burns on the surface of the plaques. Current heaters only have one heat level setting. Consequently, at least two or more heaters are needed, one for each indoor enclosed area which usually requires less heat, consequently set at a low heat level setting and one for an open outdoor area with an open traffic which is usually set at a high heat level. In both heaters, there is no flexibility in adjusting the heat outside its temperature rating to conform with the temperature of the environment which at times requires less heat than other times. Further, a user may temporarily require more heat such as when dividing walls are opened to expand the room, for example for big gatherings. It would be desirable for example, in banquet rooms that can be subdivided into smaller rooms or expanded into a bigger room to have heaters with multiple heat level settings to conform with the size of the room thereby making it not only comfortable but also energy saving by not emitting more radiant heat than necessary when a smaller room is used. The present invention solved the above inability to provide multiple heat level settings by careful consideration of different factors and combining the right burner material, control valve and other components in a carefully designed housing, assembled in such a way that it can deliver heat at one or multiple levels or settings.
Other gas infrared heaters that have both high and low heat level settings achieved this through a burner control valve that distributes gas to selected number of burner plaques. This system is also referred to as burner or plaque selection system. Heat is controlled by the number of plaques receiving gas and burning at its surface thereby giving off radiant heat proportional to the number of active plaques. Active plaques mean plaques burning gas-air mixture at its surface. On a low heat level setting, not all of the plaques are active and on a high heat level setting, almost all or all of the plaques are active. While this design and assembly provide flexibility in terms of over-all heat, the radiant heat is not emitted uniformly throughout all of the plaques at all times since some of the plaques are purposely shut-off when less radiant heat is needed. Likewise, since some plaques are active and some are not, an enclosure or area will not have uniform heating, resulting in some spots near the active plaques getting more heat than another spot farther from an active plaque or burner.
Present infrared gas heaters have only two compartments, one for the burner and one for the operating system. This is adequate to shield and separate them apart when the burner is turned “on” because cold air enters from the outside into the operating system compartment and mixes with the gas at the inlet tube of the burner but this does not take the precaution of protecting the operating system from the heat coming from the burner after it is turned “off” after usage.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a heater having fully fired burner plaques at all times at each heat level settings.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a method for controlling the emitted radiant heat not by burner or plaque selection but by combining the right control valve, control module and the right kind of plaque design and material that would emit low or high heat using all the plaques of the burner at all times.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a gas infrared heater with a length longer than 48 inches to cover a wider area.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a heater activated with a remote control rather than a manual switch.
It is also still a further object of this invention to provide a heater that can be fully operated by a battery or by a standard electrical power outlet alone or by a combination of a standard electrical power outlet using an AC adapter and battery to ensure operation even during power outage.
It is also still a further object of this invention to provide a heater that has minimal component overheating and minimal warping and discoloration even after usage.